Do Colleges Know How Many Schools You Apply To?

I’ve noticed in some recent comments people are discouraging college applicants from applying to too many schools, and this seems to be defined as more than 10, for fear that the candidate is spreading him/herself too thin and the quality of the applications suffer. There also seems to be some thinking that those colleges which measure demonstrated interest will not take an applicant who has demonstrated interest seriously if they believe he/she has applied to an excessive number of colleges, My question is, can colleges find out how many schools an applicant has applied to?

Some colleges ask what other colleges the applicant is applying to. Whether they get a full list from each applicant is another matter.

A few years ago, the FAFSA shared the list of colleges to all of the colleges on it (though only 10 can be put on it for each submission). Some colleges interpreted the order of colleges on the list as an indication of the applicant’s ranking of the colleges. The FAFSA no longer shares the list of colleges to the colleges.

I am not sure how the college would know where else the student applied, unless it’s on financial aid documents or unless the student knowingly shares that information. When D16 was applying, I remember there being a question asking them to list other colleges they applied to. Can’t remember if it was on the Common App. itself, or in the college-specific questions, but she was really unsure whether or not she should answer. She didn’t want to be seen as “refusing to answer a question,” but also didn’t want her answer to somehow count against her. In the end, she did answer, but I didn’t think the kids should have even been asked.

They generally don’t know unless you tell them in an interview which is rare for most colleges. The point about spreading yourself too thin is the fact that in order to have compelling applications for a dozen colleges you have to really know the colleges and taylor your essays and responses to that college’s strengths and your strengths. Honestly this just doesn’t happen. After visiting five or six schools with your kid you start to realize that they morph and you forget important parts of each one. My child visited one Ivy and had an amazing interview as part of the application for that ivy. He was able to point out something he thought that was neat that he saw during the visit that the interviewer latched onto. It wasn’t obvious and probably no kid had mentioned that before in an interview with this person. That school had extensive essays and he spent a lot of time on them. It would have been an impossibility for him to have that much inside information on, for example, eight other top schools that require extensive essays and offer interviews. He received the positive admission result from that school, even though he was unhooked, non urm, and applied RD with a ~4% admit rate.

The admissions officers are pretty skilled at looking at a application in seeing recycled information and weak knowledge of the school and the programs. That’s why it’s better to apply to only one or two reaches so that those applications can be the best they can be.

I have said this multiple times on this site… The most important part of the college search is finding safety / match schools that your child would be happy attending and can afford. It’s easy to find reach schools/ prestigious schools.